Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 August 1889 — Tied to the Mast. [ARTICLE]

Tied to the Mast.

David Kerr in Harper’s Young People. “ “Tell us a story, papa,” chorused half a dozen voices. “We most have a story.” “Oh you’ve heard all my yarns already, ” answered Captain Martingale, laughing. “If you want a story this gentleman will tell you one.” “This gentleman” was a tall, broadchested man, with a thick black beard which was fast turning gray, who had come in just before dinner and had been warmly welcomed by the Captain. A very grim fellow he looked as he sat on the great oaken chair, with the firelight playing fitfully on his dark, bearded, weather-beaten face. “Am I to tell you a story ?” asked the visitor, in a deep, hoarse voice, quite as piratical as his appearance. “Well, then, listen: There was once a poor boy who had no father or mother, no friends and no home, except the wet, dirty forecastle of a trading schooner. He had to go about barefoot in the cold and rain, with nothing on but an old ragged flannel shirt and a pair of sailcloth trousers; and instead of landing on beautiful islands and digging up buried treasures, and having a good ame all round, like the folks in the story-books, he got kicked and cuffed from morning till night, and sometimes had a sound thrashing with a rope’s end into the bargain. All the sailors were very rough and ugly to him, but rhe worst of all was the captain himself. He had been badly treated himself when he was a boy, and so (as some men will) he took a delight in ill-treating somebody else in the same way. Many a time did he send the poor little fellow aloft when the ship was rolling and the wind blowing hard, and more than once he beat him so cruelly that the poor lad almost fainted with the pain.” “Wicked wretch !” cried Bob, indigently. “I hope he got drowned or eaten up by savages.” “Or taken for a slave himself, and well thrashed every day,” suggested Dick. “Oh no, Bob,” said little Helen, who was sitting on alow stool at her father’s feet; “I hope be was sorry for being so srnel. and got very good.” The strange guest stopped and lifted the little girl into his lap and kissod ber. Helen nestled closer to him and looked wonderingly up in his face, for, is he bent his head toward her, something touched her forehead in the darkness that felt very mnch like a tear. “Well,” resumed the speaker, after a ihort pause, “the schonner, heading eastward across the Indian Ocean, came it last among the Maidive Isles, where it’s always very dangerous sailing. The sorai islands, which lie in great rings *r ’atolls’ all around, like so many firings of beads, ars so low and flat that »ven in the daytime it’s not easy to ivoid running aground upon them; but it night you might as well try to walk ihrough a room full of stools without tumbling over one of them. “Of course the captain had to be always on deck looking out, and that lidn’t make his temper any the sweeter, is you may think. So that every evenkg, when the cabin boy had displeased lim in some way, what does he do but tell the men to sling him up into the rigging and tie him hand and foot to a nast. « - 5 But the cowards were soon paid for iheir cruelty. They were so busy tormenting the poor lad that none of them aad noticed how the skv “as darkening to windwardand all at once a tquall came down upon them as suddenly as a cut of a whip. In a moment die sea all round was like a boiling pot, ind crash went the ship over on her fide, and both the masts went by the hoard (fell down into the sea, that is,) sarrying the boy with them. It was just as well for poor Harry that he liad been tied to the mast, otherwise the sea would have swept bim away like a straw. Even as it was, be was almost stifled by the bursting of the waves over his head. He was still peering into the darkness to try if he could see anything of the ship, when there eame a tremendous crash and a terrible cry. and then dead silence. Ihe vessel had been dashed upon a sorai reef and stove in, and the sea, breaking over, had swept away every man on board. “But storms iD those parts pass away ts quickly as they come; and it was not long before the sea began to go down, Hie clouds rolled away, and the moon broke forth in all its glory. Then Harrv, finding that the rope which tied his arms had been a good deal strained by the shock that carried away the mast, managed to free one hand and unbind the other arm and his feet. Just then a face rose from the water within a few yards of him, and Harry recognized his enemy, the cruel captain. + “There he was. the man who had abased, starved and beaten him, dying, •r jus) about to die, almost within reach of safety. Though barely twice his own length divided him from the floating man, so strong was the eddy against which the captain was battling in vain that he had no more chanoe of reaching it than if it had been a mile away. A few moments more, aad he would have sunk, never to rise again; bnt the sight] «f that white, ghastly face, and those I wild, despairing eyes, was too much for Harry. He flnng out the rope that he held; the Captain olutched it. and in another minute was safe on the most, rescued by the boy he had been so cruel to.” “o—oh 1” said Bob, drawing a long breath. 'Tin so clad!” Dined Helen’s tiny voice. “X Wttj oO elitt.d lie VruUiU let ihe poor Captain drown.” ' ‘About sunrise, ” oontinned the guest, “seme natives who were out fishing in a small boat caught sight of them and eame to the rescue. The Maidive Islanders are much bettor fellows than the M*Uy», farther ewt, and they took good care of them both for a month or •o, till at tost an outward-bound En- “ And what happened to them after feat?” asked all the children at once. , "The little cabin bor.” answered the

• • - •*-: j. v -V -rJ r* story-teller "became as smart a seaman is ever walked a deck, and got the command of a fine ship by-and-bv; and now,” flaying his hand upon their father’s shoulder) “here he aits, ” / “Papa! cried the amazed children, “were you the poor little hoy ?" “But what became of the poor Cap-i tain who was so cruel?” asked Helen, wistfully. “Why, here he sits,” said her father, 1 grasping the story-teller’s hand, “and te’s the best friend I have in the world.”